China Social Science Review

No.4, 2022

 

Information Technology and Political and Legal Traditions: Rethinking the Construction of the Social Credit System

(Abstract)

 

Li Sheng

 

The institutional logic of the social credit system that has emerged in contemporary China has a continuity with historical political and legal traditions. From an information perspective, information that helps to encourage cooperation constitutes credit, and has always played an important role in society. However, due to technical constraints, traditional societies can only from decentralized credit mechanisms, making it difficult to establish a unified social credit system. The significant drop in the cost of information in the context of the information technology revolution has made it easier to consolidate dispersed information and has also led to the possibility of commercial platforms developing the power of credit governance. The political and legal traditions formed in the construction of China’s socialist rule of law, with its emphasis on state-led implementation of information integration to form credit evaluations, provide the basis for the construction of the current social credit system. Combining modern information technology with the traditional logic of politics and law, the development of a state-led social credit system can respond more effectively to society’s need for credit mechanisms, constrain the power of commercial platforms and ensure a socialist orientation of digital social governance.